In Gaza, cheers and trepidation

Militants welcomed as Israel stands by

May 11, 2002|By Uli Schmetzer, Special to the Tribune. Tribune news services contributed to this report.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The people of Gaza City celebrated the arrival of Palestinian militants evacuated from the Church of the Nativity on Friday, while Israeli leaders sent mixed signals about a potential military response to the latest suicide bombing in Israel.

Israeli tanks and troops remained poised on the Gaza border. Reservists underwent special training for a possible assault on Gaza's urban areas. Gazans themselves stockpiled food and water and readied their basements as bunkers.

But Israeli television reported that Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer would postpone the operation because of leaks about the army's plans to retaliate for a bombing that killed 15 Israelis this week.

Jubilant at being free, but alleging that Israeli soldiers beat them as they traveled to Gaza, 26 Palestinians taken out of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem arrived to a hero's welcome in a city preparing for a siege. For a few hours, at least, the people of Gaza stopped building barricades and lined the streets to cheer the men that Israel had labeled "minor militants."

All 26 had been barricaded since April 2 in the church, built where Christians believe Jesus was born. They left Friday morning courtesy of an internationally brokered deal that placed them in Gaza, sent 13 "senior militants" into exile and freed the rest of the 160 or so people holed up in the church.

People waved Palestinian flags and pressed assault rifles into the men's hands. They applauded as the men leaned out of their bus and fired the weapons into the air.

If Israel expected the men to face trial in Gaza for militant activities, its hopes were dashed quickly.

"They are our brothers. They will be given homes, jobs and opportunities because they were Palestinian hostages of Israel," said Nabil Shaath, Palestinian minister for planning and international cooperation.

Shaath lauded the men at an official reception after each had showered off the grime of five weeks without a bath and changed clothing that had hung off them in tatters.

Even the last chapter of the siege drama was not without controversy. Several of the men said soldiers beat them with batons and rifle butts inside a bus that had its curtains drawn. The incident occurred after they boarded the bus that took them from the church to an army camp, the men said.

"Once inside the bus we were ordered to put our heads between our knees and our hands on the back seat in front of us. It was stinking hot in the bus, so some of us came up for air. The soldiers just clubbed us and butted us," said Sahmi Kanan, 31.

Added Hatim Humod, 29: "When they beat Musa Shabat, who is deaf, I tried to explain to him with hand signals what the soldiers wanted him to do. Two soldiers just beat and beat me on my hands and my arm."

Doctors at Gaza City Hospital diagnosed a possible fracture of Humod's upper arm and badly bruised fingers. He also had a bruise on his head, and his hands were bandaged.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, replying to a question about a possible incursion into Gaza, accused Israel of committing crimes against Palestinians.

"Our people are steadfast and will continue with all their power to defend our holy cities, Christian and Muslim places," he said at his West Bank headquarters.

Gaza is one of the world's most densely populated areas, and many believe that invading the strip on a scale similar to Israel's sweep through the West Bank last month in search of militants would result in high casualties among civilians and Israeli troops.

In the West Bank town of Tulkarem, meanwhile, Israeli troops demolished a four-story building belonging to the family of a Hamas suicide bomber, Abdel Bassat Odeh, who blew himself up March 27 in a hotel in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya. Twenty-nine Israelis died in the attack, which . triggered Israel's West Bank offensive two days later.

Though the West Bank offensive gained much popular support among Israelis, they are more wary of an assault on Gaza.

"Senior officers question the wisdom of Gaza operation," was the headline on the front page of the newspaper Haaretz.

Haaretz military correspondent Amos Harel reported that the government was under pressure from the Bush administration to limit its response to the bombing Tuesday that killed 15 Israelis in a pool and gambling hall near Tel Aviv.

Harel said senior officers feared an incursion would lead to high casualties on both sides and scuttle international efforts to bring about at least a lull in the fighting.

Senior reserve officers, Harel said, have been outspoken in comments to the news media and in internal debates over the planned operation.

"They said unlike Defensive Shield, which was perceived as necessary, going into Gaza will break the public consensus," Harel reported, referring to Israel's massive military sweep through the West Bank.

In the United States, President Bush on Friday welcomed the end of the Bethlehem siege, even as he and other officials watched with wariness the Israeli buildup around Gaza.

The fate of the militants has further divided Palestinians and eroded the status of Arafat, who had to give his approval to the deal. Militant groups such as Hamas say the deal was a sellout and a dangerous precedent.

"It was a disastrous solution because we are legitimizing deportation," said a senior Hamas official, Ismail Abu Shanab.